Retard.
I really try not to say this out loud. Im mostly successful. Its deeply imprinted.
I’ve been hearing this a lot more within the last ~14 months.
I hate how that word became pejorative, because it was used correctly. By the way, it’s still used in plumbing. Retard is a verb which means to slow, e.g. retard the flow. When you call a person who is developmentally disabled that, yes it’s rude, but it means their mental process is slow. The word was being used accurately. It’s just not nice to say.
I don’t think “window licker” was ever accurate, but for some reason it’s slightly more socially acceptable to say (or imply, e.g. “I will say this for him, his windows are always clean”).
There’s a few term of that kind of age which were like that. Medical terms or just plain English words that became labelled “derogatory” because of how they were used. I always felt it showed how poor the vocabulary of some people was. If they only knew the derogatory meaning they’d get offended by it’s use in all situations even if the meaning was innocent.
It doesn’t mean their mental process is slow. It refers to developmental retardation. As if the person’s body is just going to “catch up” one day… Which is why it was a stupid thing to say all along.
Eh, I use it for very stupid people. Obviously devoid of ableist intent.
I feel as though the context matters with this. For the genuinely evil and criminally unintelligent I would use the clinical “Mentally retarded”.
“Retard” and music (low volume) on buses are the controversial hills I’m willing to die on.
Pick better hills.
Maybe later, for now I have petty culturally unpopular positions that I will maintain. They are few but they are mine.
“Everyone’s always asking me: ‘What are you doing, retard?’, but nobody ever asks 'How are you doing, retard?'”
How are you doing retard?
❤️
That was very common when I was growing up. Unfortunately, it has been replaced with variations of autistic, though “anti-woke” people will use both.
Or it’s more derogatory sibling, Fucktard.
pivotal comma
Maybe by you… Unfortunately.
I still use most of the hella tight slang I grew up with
hella
i picked this one up from living in california for 15 years and it keeps tripping up the people i talk to everywhere else i’ve lived since then.
i don’t even notice that i do it until someone points it out to me. lol
I feel like hella was the west coast version of wicked.
That was hella wicked.
I called something “the bomb” the other day and my mind did a record scratch, like, did I actually say that unironically??
I dig your vibe, dog.
Who you calling a dog, dawg?
I’m finna get my homeboys to whoop your ass, you dig homeslice?
Yo Bro, cool your jets.
Huh.
Information superhighway
We were so full of hope.
Surfing the world wide web. Sounds so dumb now.
Surfing the world wide web. Sounds so dumb now.
I dunno I still kinda love it. In part I think it might sound a little dumb now thanks to how big money has turned the primary web interaction into “Schlorping at the Centralized World Trough.”
But web surfing is still a thing with the Indie Web, and it can still be an apt description because you can catch and ride “waves” of various networked pages and find really neat stuff. There was a sense of exploration to it, the whimsy that you could get carried really far from where you started and potentially have a lot of fun along the way.
I still like to surf the web. Cowabunga. :)
You just described going down a Wikipedia hole too. Always a good way to procrastinate
Now it’s just a series of tubes
One could even call it… tubular
I love it when threads come together
It’s more like four tubes and then a whole bunch of tiny little hose pipes.
Calling others gay or disabled as a slur.
Also using it for situations of inconvenience. Eg, **The next train is cancelled.*" “That’s fuckin gay!”
I grew up in the 90s, theses were used by everyone all the time. I still use these, even though I don’t like to. Though, if any of an excuse, I don’t use them to denigrate those disabled or homosexual.
“Retard” is used for any person or thing that is hard to work with, complex to use. Anything complex that takes up a lot time, not simple to use. My oven clock is “retarded” as it isn’t intuitive when trying to set the time. I am “retarded” for not taking the time to pull out the manual and learn how to set it after the power goes out.
“Gay” is for anything or anyone that is dramatic, causing a situation or problem when there isn’t one. For people who are overly sensitive, who take offense at “sub conscious facial micro aggression” of others.
I grew up beating up the bullies of disabled kids. When I got older, I became a lgtbq advocate and donated time\money to charity that supports them. Am I trying to excuse my behavior by still using these …?..
We had a campaign in Canada called “‘That’s so gay’ is so yesterday” when I was in school. A lot of classrooms had stickers or posters with that quote. IDK how well it worked in general but definitely had an effect on me, especially since I was at an age where I didn’t really understand what homosexuality even was, and one of my first exposures to the word was that it’s not okay to use it as an insult.
Sure that’s not just an age thing you and your peers have outgrown?
Both is unfortunately still in use by youths here, but just not once they are grown-up.
Wanda Sykes did a PSA about this. It was put on YouTube 17 years ago. I don’t know when it first aired.
Now I feel old…
I’m old enough that teachers referred to us as the “retarded kids” not to our face at least but when they thought we couldn’t hear them.
By us I meant the learning disabled.
it’s a free country!
Lord help us. Hopefully we can hear it again!
All that and a bag of chips
I once had a coworker who said she was all that and a bucket of chicken. Black lady, too. I would not repeat it… to her. I’ve since picked it up. “All that and a b_____ of ch_____” is the new saying, and anything that starts with a B that makes sense with something that starts with ch- fits. I haven’t actually heard any others, but I noticed that pattern was maintained across the two.
…“All that and a board of cheese”? Maybe…
Grody.
I still call things grody, but it’s apparently twee and shit to say now.
Grody to the max.
Most of the stuff that was said back when I was in school were slurs. Like nearly every spoken sentence contained at least one slur.
Fake and gay
This exchange reminds me of the last boondocks episode.
I didn’t learn until an embarrassingly late age that you shouldn’t say “jewed them down” or “I got gypped” when discussing prices, etc. Once it dawned on me what I was saying, I felt pretty mortified, but I grew up hearing them as normal words. It was just a thing you say.
Same with me. Didn’t even think of where it came from.
“Roflmao” :(
Also: cool beans
Cool beans is in regular rotation. My daughter has also banned me from taking her to school.
Awe, i still use cool beans all the time.
Same. Sometimes ironically, sometimes actually.
‘mad’, as in ‘very’
rad. as in a conjunction of radical, which is also a slang term no longer in use.
people look at me real weird when tell them the cool thing they just told me is ‘rad’
Still use it, unironically, along with things like “righteous.”
I like taking what I like from various ways of speaking, until mine is my own. Don’t let anyone take that away from you. :p
I seem to recall hearing Brennan Lee Mulligan saying it quite a bit in Dimension 20 and it made me giggle.
Seriously? as far as i was aware that’s a perfectly normal thing to say?
Back in the 70s we used to say “fuckin-A” as a kind of agreement
I still use it…
Me too
Are you surprised at my tears, sir…?
Bummer man. That’s… (hits joint) that’s a bummer
It was pretty common when I was in high school in the 90s. But for some reason the kids I knew insisted it was fuck-a-nay.
Fo sho, mostly because growing up made me realize I’m never really sho of anything no mo.
Don’t hear “house” meaning to destroy something anymore.
Ima house you.
I’m about to house this burrito.This is in common use in my area with slightly modified context. To “house” something is to envelop and incorporate it, almost always in reference to food. Threatening to house someone would be weird and vaguely sexual, “bro fuckin housed those crispitos” is a normal thing to hear
Interesting, I haven’t heard it since the 90s. Do you pronounce it with an s or z? We said s, even though the normal verb form (eg “the governor housed 10000 homeless people with the latest bill”) is said with a z for me.
I hear both but say z
